deploying an Outlook 2007 setting, after the initial install of Of

[ac2006]

Hello,

How do you deploy an Outlook 2007 setting, after the initial install of
Office 2007? With Office 2003, you simply ran the maintenance wizard to
create a CMW file and push it to your users.

I have read where you are supposed to use setup.exe /admin to create msp
file with your changes, but all I want to do is change the default Free\Busy
from 6 months to 12 months (with out using AD group policies)

I can't see how to create an MSP with just those settings. In the
Customization tool you have to choose an installation state for the Office
apps, and "no change" is not an option. I have to choose install or not
available, but I've already installed the Office apps I want.

Also, I've tried creating a new MSP to add an additional Office application
to an exisiting install and received an error in the log file that an MSP can
only be used during the initiall install. (I ended up uninstalling Office
and re-installing it with the added componenets, a real pain in the !@#)

I can't believe Microsoft removed the maintenance wizard, which was such a
simple and easy tool (then I again...I guess I can believe it)

Any help appreciated.
Thanks

 

[Gerry Hickman]

Hi,

Is it possible that Free/Busy setting is a USER setting as opposed to a
machine setting? If so, I don't see how an MSP would help?

Actually, the whole thing is insane because why would you need to create
an MSP just to alter some MSI feature states?

This is all about trying to make Office more "child friendly", the idea
is that everyone is too stupid to configure anything on a computer
unless it's done through a "Wizard".

 

[ac2006]

Free\Busy is a user setting.

What Office 2003 let you do was create a CMW with the maintenance wizard
that would set the "default" free\busy setting to 12 months for the machine
(or whatever you wanted).

That way, any user that logged in, would get the default setting of 12
months. However, the users could still change the setting if they wanted to.
But the default was 12 instead of 2.

This is what I want to do for Outlook 2007. I can do this for brand new
installs, because I have changed my MSP to include the Free\Busy setting of
12 months. However, I have no way of changing the existing installs, that I
can find.

I did locate the correct way of pushing an MSP onto an existing install of
Office:

msiexec.exe /p \\servername\sharename\update.MSP

However, I can not figure out how to just include the Free\Busy setting.
When I make a new MSP, I have to choose to install or remove the Office 2007
applications, I can't choose to "do nothing" like I could in the Office 2003
maintenance wizard. So, if I leave all the app settings the same as the
initial install and add the Free\Busy setting, all the apps reinstall when I
push the update.msp

It's extremely frustrating. I don't understand while Microsoft continues to
break things that worked fine in earlier versions. How is this easier than
the maintenance wizard.

Also, assuming that all these settings should be set in a group policy is
just wrong. I don't want to force the setting on my users, I just want to
change the defaults. Most of them will never go in and change things, but if
the few advanced users want to, then that's fine.

 

[Gerry Hickman]

Hi ac2006,

Free\Busy is a user setting.

See below.

What Office 2003 let you do was create a CMW with the maintenance wizard
that would set the "default" free\busy setting to 12 months for the machine

Note the word "machine" in the sentence above, which is it, user or
machine or both.

That way, any user that logged in, would get the default setting of 12
months. However, the users could still change the setting if they wanted to.
But the default was 12 instead of 2.

Yes, maybe you can set it in machine AND user, is that right? If it's a
machine setting, you should be able to set it using an MSP file, if you
can't it sounds odd to me.

However, I can not figure out how to just include the Free\Busy setting.
When I make a new MSP, I have to choose to install or remove the Office 2007
applications, I can't choose to "do nothing" like I could in the Office 2003
maintenance wizard.

OK, I understand.

It's extremely frustrating. I don't understand while Microsoft continues to
break things that worked fine in earlier versions.

I run into this all the time with Microsoft products, things that used
to work suddenly don't work anymore. I have a big list of such items for
Vista, some items of which are with Microsoft Support as we speak, but
it's already clear they have no idea how to fix them.

Also, assuming that all these settings should be set in a group policy is
just wrong. I don't want to force the setting on my users, I just want to
change the defaults.

Yes, group policy is always sold as the panacea to user settings, but
the problem is that it then FORCES the setting, all you want is to
change the defaults. I've never seen a good Microsoft tool that does
this. I've always had to use the registry direct to achieve it.